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CarPlay CarPlay adapter to convert to wireless CarPlay?

I have two Carplay2Air sticks and it seems the latest OTA bricked both of them :/. Or they are simple not detected anymore by Mazdas ...

Both still show a blue LED when booting but no red flashing anymore. Any advice?
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As I have nothing to lose I opened it up in search of a serial port. And it seems there is one ... so maybe it has serial out attached for some debugging ... I will report.

20-06-24 13-39-07 5499.jpg20-06-24 13-38-57 5498.jpg
 
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Both had this release:
2020-03-06/U2W_Update.img

I now try to flash them back to this version (or at least one of them to see if it comes back to life). Otherwise I will solder a serial output to one of them to maybe get a glimpse where it's stuck.
 
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Hi,

Could someone please recommend which device to get: Carlinkit or Carplay2Air?

If it's worth mentioning, I currently drive a 2019 Volvo S60 and it comes with built-in CarPlay via USB. I also use an iPhone 11 Pro.
 
MrMister111 said:
What version was it OTA? Could you maybe flash with the USB method, to see if recovers?
Click to expand...

As the thread starter, would you be willing to enable Wiki mode on this thread so that we can put a FAQ in there, and keep it up to date? This thread is so long, to the point that no one is going to go back and comb through it to find information. This latest poster is like the 100th to ask the Carplay2Air vs. Carlinkit question. If we had a wiki in the first post we could just direct new users there for accurate, up-to-date info.

Thanks.
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Brizor93 said:
Hi,

Could someone please recommend which device to get: Carlinkit or Carplay2Air?

If it's worth mentioning, I currently drive a 2019 Volvo S60 and it comes with built-in CarPlay via USB. I also use an iPhone 11 Pro.
Click to expand...

Get a Carlinkit, preferably from a retailer that is easy to return to (i.e. Amazon Prime if you have it). Make sure you're getting the Carlinkit Wired to Wireless adapter and not one of the cheaper Carlinkit adapters that are meant to work with Android head units.

To be clear, the two adapters have the same guts, use the same firmware, and work in the same way. So why Carlinkit?

1. Carlinkit has a new version of the adapter with some improvements--a detachable cable, larger LED indicator and potentially improvements under the hood. Carplay2Air is still selling only the original version with a built-in, non-removable cable.

2. Carlinkit is often available via Amazon Prime. It costs a bit more that way, but in the event that the device doesn't work/works inconsistently/gets bricked you will have a much easier time returning it. If you buy from Carplay2Air and need to do a return, you will have to ship it to China at your expense.

3. Carlinkit has pretty good support, with the caveat that they are in China and their english isn't the best. Carplay2Air's support is crap in comparison (from reports in this thread).

You can buy either adapter though and almost definitely have the same experience. The biggest determinant though is your exact car/head unit. So what you might want to do is click the magnifying glass above, and then choose the option to search just this thread for Volvo and read posts from other owners.
 
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awlnx-mac said:
I have two Carplay2Air sticks and it seems the latest OTA bricked both of them :/. Or they are simple not detected anymore by Mazdas ...

Both still show a blue LED when booting but no red flashing anymore. Any advice?
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As I have nothing to lose I opened it up in search of a serial port. And it seems there is one ... so maybe it has serial out attached for some debugging ... I will report.

View attachment 927093View attachment 927094
Click to expand...


This is interesting. I have another wireless Carlinkit dongle for Android/WinCe headUnits which I used on my Chevy Cruze, used for a good 2 years then I bricked it by flashing the wrong fw. A U2W fw btw in the hopes that I could "upgrade" it and make it work with MyLink on my current vehicle. LoL

Visually, the internals are the same as the U2W internals, except for the 5CGI7 D9NMT chip. I assume this is the RAM? Mine has Hynix H5TQ1C63BFR etc etc]. And whatever chip is under that shielding, may or may not be the same.

Anyhow, am just saying that I was surprised to see that they are or look very much the same.
 
@phantom25 Thank you for the above recommendation. This was exactly what I was looking for. I will follow your suggestion and search for other posts from Volvo owners.
 
Tested with iOS 14 last night, no change in performance for me. Still took a few seconds for new song to start playing when changing tracks. And still had a long wait (30 seconds) for the unit to connect to my headunit. Rolled back to iOS 13.5.1.
 
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MrMister111 said:
Is anyone running 2020-06-19 that flashed via USB and all working ok? Mine has never worked on a Vauxhall but live in hope eventually does someday.....it’s an original CarLinkIt.

**edit**There’s a new 2020-06-24 update on the download link as well.

Anyone check on OTA to see if appears and what fixes are please?

Actually there are firmware files on many dates for future that all go to firmware 6-19-20.

see below.

http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-23/U2W_Update.img



http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-24/U2W_Update.img



http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-25/U2W_Update.img



http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-26/U2W_Update.img





http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-27/U2W_Update.img

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
Brizor93 said:
Hi,

Could someone please recommend which device to get: Carlinkit or Carplay2Air?

If it's worth mentioning, I currently drive a 2019 Volvo S60 and it comes with built-in CarPlay via USB. I also use an iPhone 11 Pro.
Click to expand...

Get the Carlinkit but the USB-C version this one has all the steering wheel controls working. I had a the former and latter and I drive a 2019 XC60

Orederd mine via AliExpress with dhl shipping
 
bookemdano said:
It wasn't there for me when I checked yesterday evening. If it matters, I have the older style Carlinkit.

Bit the bullet and flashed the 6.17 update via USB just now--thankfully it seems to have flashed OK, but haven't tested it in-car yet.

I know there is an update from 6.19, but @manjinjorgo, my fellow C-Max owner in here, said 6.17 is working well for him so I decided to go with that. The 6.06 build definitely seemed slower to connect than 3.04, so I hope 6.17 is better in that regard.

Edit: I'm attaching the 6.17 file in case it disappears off Carlinkit's site. PLEASE DO NOT FLASH IT (OR ANY OTHER FIRMWARE) UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE THE RISK OF BRICKING YOUR ADAPTER. NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW WHY SOME ADAPTERS BRICK DURING FIRMWARE UPDATES--IT MIGHT JUST BE RANDOM CHANCE, SO CAVEAT EMPTOR.
Click to expand...

I double check mine Fw again and I’m running 2020.06.17.0543. OTA upgrade is not available for me at the moment.
Since this version is working well I didn’t even try with any newer (if available because I didn’t pay attention to it!)

//S
 
I second or third the need for a Wiki or better yet, a new thread. There are basically 5 repetitive questions asked over and over, starting with "which one should I get?", then "how do I USB flash?", then "will it work on my car?" then, "which firmware?" and finally, "I bricked my device, what can I do?"

I get it though, this is a Looooooonnng thread. Time for a new one. I thought about starting it, but there are folks further along than me where I have no issues to speak of relatively speaking that can do a better job. Even if the opening page doesn't capture everything, surely a short thread with Q&A is more manageable. If someone does it, post here for the redirection,
 
Today I upgraded my iPhone to iOS14 and noticed indeed a faster track skipping and the lag seems quite standard now. At least it's fine for me. Unfortunately the short music interruption still happens at times.

Afterwards I upgraded from firmware 0606 to 0617 but noticed no changes at all.
 
nightmare28 said:
I'll return my bricked device by today, it was a real mess to find an appropriate delivery service with tracking for a cheap price, then do some customs declaration, after they got my bricked carplay2air adapter, i'll get a "new" one.... hopefully everything will work fine :)
Click to expand...
If it is not too late, ask for a refund when they get it and buy another now from Amazon Prime from Carlinkit. It will take FOREVER for them to get it and send you another one. CarPlay2Air blows in terms of customer service. This is similar to what I did. i ordered from them first, waited two months for it to arrive. I disputed it with Paypal when it seemed stuck in tracking for a month. Money back. Amazon Primed a Carlinkit, bricked it updating, returned and refunded same day. Ordered USB-C via Amazon not prime. Took forever, bought USB-C from a member on this thread. It arrived the same day as the Amazon one. Sold the extra one here to another member. CarPlay2Air arrived, sold on ebay for $160 and they never asked to reverse the refund knowing it was actually delivered. I am ahead of the game.
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joergz said:
Today I upgraded my iPhone to iOS14 and noticed indeed a faster track skipping and the lag seems quite standard now. At least it's fine for me. Unfortunately the short music interruption still happens at times.

Afterwards I upgraded from firmware 0606 to 0617 but noticed no changes at all.
Click to expand...
What kind of car? I had the same positive experience with ios14 and I have no audio interruption. Really fast changing tracks and interface is lickity split. Audio quality improved too although it was good before, now better. I am running 1.22. Seems this firmware was made for my car. I am not going to try to fix what is not broken with their random unofficial firmware's with no release notes.
 
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Only the 2020-06-24 work for me. It’s only the 24th today anyway?

Has anyone tried the above on USB?


As I’ve previously posted I’m happy to make anything at the top a sticky. Either DM me or post and mention me and I’ll add to top no problem.
 
LarryJoe33 said:
What kind of car? I had the same positive experience with ios14 and I have no audio interruption. Really fast changing tracks and interface is lickity split. Audio quality improved too although it was good before, now better. I am running 1.22. Seems this firmware was made for my car. I am not going to try to fix what is not broken with their random unofficial firmware's with no release notes.
Click to expand...

It‘s an 2020 Skoda Octavia MK3. Actually for this car I noticed no changes between the different FW versions. The only change I noticed brought Apple with iOS14. 😁
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MrMister111 said:
Only the 2020-06-24 work for me. It’s only the 24th today anyway?

Has anyone tried the above on USB?


As I’ve previously posted I’m happy to make anything at the top a sticky. Either DM me or post and mention me and I’ll add to top no problem.
Click to expand...
Where did you get this FW from?
 
MrMister111 said:
Only the 2020-06-24 work for me. It’s only the 24th today anyway?

Has anyone tried the above on USB?


As I’ve previously posted I’m happy to make anything at the top a sticky. Either DM me or post and mention me and I’ll add to top no problem.
Click to expand...
MrMister111 said:
Only the 2020-06-24 work for me. It’s only the 24th today anyway?

Has anyone tried the above on USB?


As I’ve previously posted I’m happy to make anything at the top a sticky. Either DM me or post and mention me and I’ll add to top no problem.
Click to expand...

http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-19/U2W_Update.img





http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-22/U2W_Update.img





http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-23/U2W_Update.img



http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-24/U2W_Update.img



http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-25/U2W_Update.img



http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-26/U2W_Update.img





http://112.74.112.110/download/2020-06-27/U2W_Update.img
 
 
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MrMister111 said:
As I’ve previously posted I’m happy to make anything at the top a sticky. Either DM me or post and mention me and I’ll add to top no problem.
Click to expand...

Could you state what your opposition to making a wiki is? The reason it's better than funneling changes through one user is that it's collaborative. You're not a frequent poster here and could disappear at any time (as could any of us). If you look around the forums you'll see lots of popular threads have Wikis enabled.

If you're worried about defacement, the Wiki feature has the ability to remove any mistaken or malicious edits and restore previous versions. Furthermore, only users who have at least 25 posts are allowed to edit the wiki in the first place.

Hope you'll reconsider.
 
StLouisCPhT said:
Something very interesting about this: I've been checking every day since Saturday and until today, nothing showed up for the 22nd or 23rd using those links..... Just 404 errors.

I've been willing to try the FWs so far, but I don't think I would trust new ones uploaded to their server before the date actually has occurred.
Click to expand...

I just updated to firmware 6-24-20 all went ok and updated. But when I check with 192.168.50.2 it’s actually 6-19-20 firmware that is in those directories.
 

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bookemdano said:
Could you state what your opposition to making a wiki is? The reason it's better than funneling changes through one user is that it's collaborative. You're not a frequent poster here and could disappear at any time (as could any of us). If you look around the forums you'll see lots of popular threads have Wikis enabled.

If you're worried about defacement, the Wiki feature has the ability to remove any mistaken or malicious edits and restore previous versions. Furthermore, only users who have at least 25 posts are allowed to edit the wiki in the first place.

Hope you'll reconsider.
Click to expand...

I won’t disappear, but that is my worry, defacing. Can easy get to 25 posts though so that isn’t protection really.

I don’t want to have to check all the time in case someone has defaced it, but will look into it if there’s an option to stop this.
 
2018 Denali said:
I just updated to firmware 6-24-20 all went ok and updated. But when I check with 192.168.50.2 it’s actually 6-19-20 firmware that is in those directories.
Click to expand...

Wait, so you used the 06-24 image but it installed 06-19? I have to check what mine reports.... But I was running 06-19 until this morning and it was performing a lot worse than after the update.
 
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StLouisCPhT said:
Wait, so you used the 06-24 image but it installed 06-19? I have to check what mine reports.... But I was running 06-19 until this morning and it was performing a lot worse than after the update.
Click to expand...

Yes I installed 6/24/20 but when checked it was actually 6-19-20 that was installed.
 
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